Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A soft, friable, and porous sedimentary rock consisting of calcium carbonate and formed by the evaporation of water, especially at the mouth of a hot spring or on a drying lakebed. It can also be precipitated by algae or bacteria.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rock having a rough or cellular texture, sometimes a fragmental volcanic material, and sometimes a calcareous deposit from springs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A soft or porous stone formed by depositions from water, usually calcareous; -- called also calcareous tufa.
  • A friable volcanic rock or conglomerate, formed of consolidated cinders, or scoria.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the calcareous deposit of lime found near hot springs
  • noun the volcanic rock tuff

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hard volcanic rock composed of compacted volcanic ash
  • noun a soft porous rock consisting of calcium carbonate deposited from springs rich in lime

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete Italian tufa, tufo, from Latin tōfus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian tufo, from Latin tōphus or tōfus.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "On the walls of the Castel dell'Ovo, Carlo Andreoli makes out the signs of the sea, the soft tufa eroded by the ever-rising damp, spurts of froth appear, stars flicker, fireworks in the distance, white fires moving, renewing."

    Malacqua by Nicola Pugliese, translated by Shaun Whiteside, p 10

    January 8, 2018